


The Bridges We Build

by Fangirl_Shenanigans



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Pre-Before Crisis, Semi AU, Unexpected friendships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-28
Updated: 2015-01-28
Packaged: 2018-03-09 09:30:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3244637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirl_Shenanigans/pseuds/Fangirl_Shenanigans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Angeal and Sephiroth are asked to train 25 cadets going into engineering. One of them is a mechanical prodigy who designed the helicopters that replaced the old 'flopper choppers'. They immediately like his sparky personality but soon find that whenever it recedes, they do not like it. Can the Elite Trio of SOLDIER rid Cid of this occasionally debilitating trait?</p><p>NOT yaoi and hopefully better than the summary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bridges We Build

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. This story acts on the theory of IV->X->VII for the world's history.  
> 2\. This story contains racial prejudice against Al Bhed and Wutain.  
> 3\. This story contains a very handsy and flirtatious Genesis.  
> 4\. Some of Cid's cursing will be as it appears in the original PS1 game.  
> 5\. Any time Cid speaks Al Bhed, the transalation will be at the end of the chapter.  
> 6\. Just a warning: Most of the OCs in this story die one way or another. Try not to get attached to any of them (not that anyone will I think.)

**Setting: This particular story is pre-Before Crisis and focuses primarily on Cid and the SOLDIER group, but Reno will have a prominent role later as a fellow pilot. This also makes the trio in around their late teens early 20s given they are 30s by Crisis Core and Cid is 32 at the start of FFVII so they're generally around the same age group I think.**

**Note: This is not meant to be a yaoi story in any way, shape or form. It’s more meant to be about accepting others and showing that friendship can develop between people who work in different departments of the same workplace.**

Sephiroth couldn’t help but frown as he replayed events over in his head. For some odd reason he had been assigned to instruct the infantry unit of students that would be going into engineering. Apparently the higher ups wanted their engineers capable of self-defense at any rate, but why send in the general of SOLDIER? Surely it would have made more sense to have an unenhanced train these recruits. Yet Director Lazard had personally asked that both he and Angeal take the job instead of the one who trained the regular army.

_“I am asking this as a personal favor, not as the Director of SOLDIER. There is an engineer among the lot who actually shows promise in improving the department. The man has already designed new helicopters that are in production. Not only are they cost effective compared to the old models we used to have, but there is chance much more affordable air travel will become a reality. You and Angeal have actually already been in the first of the finished choppers.” Lazard said as he sat on his desk facing two of the greatest talents in his department._

_Angeal was mulling it over; the ride in that chopper had been much smoother than the ones prior to the start of that year. The commander got motion sickness less frequently and the structure felt much sturdier than what he called the flopper choppers._

_“Essentially you want us to keep an eye on this trainee?” Sephiroth asked, not liking the idea of playing babysitter to a lot of people who likely didn’t know a blade from the hilt of a weapon. Though he was curious as to what these cadets would be like. After all, a few of them were around the same age group as the Elite Trio._

_“I don’t want him singled out. I want him treated fairly without prejudice. That is why I’m asking people I personally trust to deal with the entire lot. You can deny my request as it isn’t being made as the director.” Lazard reasoned. While he really did hope the two men accepted, he refused to force the First-class SOLDIER operatives to do it._

_“I wouldn’t mind helping out,” Angeal spoke at last, “I’d like to see the looks on their faces. I’m also interested to see just what kind of people are going into the engineering programs. Hopefully they’re at least intelligent.”_

_“If Angeal is there I do not mind, just keep Genesis occupied. I fear if he comes anywhere near the recruits he’ll either kill some or molest them.” Sephiroth followed. While he was friends with Genesis, he also unfortunately knew him too well. All it took was getting on the redheads bad side once and your time at ShinRa would become a living hell._

_“Thank you.”_

Thinking back to that day, the general wondered what sort of prejudice Lazard had feared for that recruit. Looking at the man’s trainee file, nothing had seemed amiss except for a strange detail about his race. Sephiroth could understand prejudice had the man been of Wutain descent like Tseng of the TURKs, but this was a racial term he had never seen before: Al Bhed.

Never before had the silveret seen this term prior to reading the document on his desk. There was little to nothing he could actually find about it that made sense. Most of the documents about the term were in dyslexic gibberish save for a few proper nouns.

It was nearing time to meet their students for the next eleven weeks. Perhaps he would at least get some clarification on a warning that spoke of ‘electric’ personality. Sephiroth assumed this to mean that he was dealing with disobedient punk; he would soon learn exactly what it meant.

Angeal was already in the large gymnasium standing on the stage used for company plays that were largely for employee morale. Sephiroth let his eyes scan the room before he dared to actually enter. There were a grand total of 24 cadets in the room, yet they had been assigned 25. That meant that one was late. Sephiroth had little tolerance for tardiness. Sephiroth finally walk onto the stage using the side entrance so avoid walking through the gym first.

“You’re cutting it close Seph. One more minute and you’d have been late.” Angeal smirked.

“I was distracted. Care to explain why we only have 24 recruits here? We were assigned 25.”

“Weapon Development is borrowing one of them to repair the training robots we broke. That cadet cursed a blue streak and refused to be carted around until the president physically ordered him to go. Man’s got guts, standing up to Scarlet.” Angeal replied.

Everyone in the room including Angeal (Sephiroth was of course impervious) startled when the door to the gymnasium slammed open revealing a slightly disheveled blond not much older than themselves. Furiously livid blue eyes focused on the two SOLDIERs as the recruit walked into the gym, gloved hands clenched into tight fists.

“Which one of you numbskulls wrecked the VR room?!”

Sephiroth was taken by surprise. Surely this man knew who he was addressing. Angeal could feel a panic rising in his gut as he looked at Sephiroth. Hopefully he wouldn’t feel the need to cut down the recruit who was obviously in a state of rage-induced delirium.

“Highwind, are you nuts? That’s General Sephiroth of SOLDIER!” A fellow recruit exclaimed, mortified that the blond had completely lost it.

“Do I look like I give a $%&*? I just spent two goddamn hours fixing the wiring in that thing and then I get whisked away to fix the training robots they wrecked! Pardon me if I ain’t respectful of the reasons I get little to no sleep anymore. Complain to me when you lot get carted between departments you ain’t a part of.” It was clear he was very livid.

Sephiroth noted that the blond newcomer did indeed look ragged and exhausted. The general also noted a minute tremor running through the man’s nervous system. It seemed to him that this outburst had been more than just today’s complaints if it had nerves twitching like that. Then he remembered that this was likely why the cadet had been a smoker before being a cadet. Smoking likely took the edge off his nerves, but cadets weren’t permitted to smoke or consume any forms of alcohol. Once they were assigned to their divisions properly and had at least gained 1 rank, they had those privileges returned.

“Cadet Highwind, is it your policy to arrive late for a scheduled class?”

Sephiroth was testing a theory. In theory, the other man would get defensive and lash out at him verbally or he would feel accused and calm down enough to correct him. The general was stunned when an oddly mangled combination happened instead. However, nothing but proper nouns made any sense from the enraged outburst.

[Translate to Al Bhed later]

"Oui fyhhy dymg du sa ypuid bumelo? Dras tyshat rekr-du-tu pycdyntc drehg ed’c so zup du lmayh ib yvdan SOLDIER yht TURK vuim ibc! Ev oui tuh’d fyhd sa myda drah tuh’d clnaf ib axiebsahd un jarelmac! Zicd lyica oui uid nyhg sa tuh’d sayh E kuddy nacbald oui vun kejeh’ sa suna fung dryh dnoehk du cinjeja drec bmyla muhk ahuikr du $%#@*^~ ryja dra yldiym lmaynyhla du pa fungeh’ bnubanmo!”(1)

Everyone in the room, the two SOLDIERs included looked at Highwind like he was some sort of anomaly. This only served to both aggravate the blond further but also seemed to knock some semblance of control into him as he promptly shut his mouth.

_Shit! All of that came out in Al Bhed! Dammit! Now it’s out and I probably look ridiculous._

Soon all of the sparks had died down leaving the trainee with a hollow expression as he closed up, not offering another word. Instead he fell into default formation, not even bothering to address the fact that he was physically exhausted from lack of sleep again.

Angeal studied the man worried; now he could see why Lazard was really worried about this recruit in reality. The prejudice was likely to be based on the fact under pressure he slipped into a language considered dead and the fact that his southern accent made him easy to mistake as dumb based on the biases of city-folk.

Sephiroth was mesmerized by the language he had just heard. The general had a secret passion for learning languages; it was what had him learning Wutain from Tseng. This language was similar in structure to the common language in that the number of letters in each word did not change. Only the letter and how it was pronounced. Once he had gotten over the new desire to study this language, he took in with a frown the total personality shift that had overtaken the other man. Electrifying rage had died down into shadowed dread and a feeling of helplessness. If Sephiroth didn’t know any better he’d say that the man had a history of acceptance issues and masked his temper at a point to stay out of the spotlight if he ever got too vocal.

The general didn’t like this mask, it wasn’t even a personality. The mask was a lack of personality and meant to keep from getting into trouble. It was obvious the blond had no qualms with getting temperamental, so it was likely the slip of tongue that had caused the drastic change. It was as if he was waiting for Sephiroth and Angeal to make the first move.

Oddly enough, it was another recruit that spoke up before either officer could speak. This young woman turned to Cid with concern.

“Don’t do that Cid. ShinRa is supposed to embrace the personality of its associates. They can’t even get to know yours if you mask it like that. Anyone would be upset if they were constantly being demanded to do things at odd hours, but you’re one of the only people here who would ever voice that reality!”

Cid didn’t respond at first, glazed blue eyes scanning the room as if looking for the resentment he was sure was there. All of his life he had been picked on for being half Al Bhed, especially when he lost control and forgot how to speak in the proper common tongue. Once, Cid had made a friend when he was seven. It was fine until one slip of Al Bhed turned their parents against him. Cid never saw that little girl again, her parents had moved to Midgar to get away from the ‘Al Bhed Filth’. Cid still didn’t understand why ShinRa didn’t seem to shun him just as quickly when the president saw his application. Instead the man had looked interested and was rather pleased to hear he wanted to be an engineer.

The blue eyed man was surprised when he didn’t see resentment on any of the other recruits or even the commanding officers who he had clearly just verbally abused. Eventually irritation flitted back into his face, the mask crumbling a bit. Thankfully it was understandable this time.

“Well? Say somethin’! Don’t just stare at me!”

Angeal could tell the demand was aimed at himself and Sephiroth. Sephiroth smirked and did indeed say something, just not about the situation at hand much to the relief of the young woman who had spoken up.

“Starting today, Angeal and I are to instruct all 25 of you in various modes of self-defense. This will span eleven weeks. We will start with a lecture regarding standing up for yourself in the event you are unfairly dragged to a job that is not actually your responsibility.”

Sephiroth smirked at Cid’s wide-eyed shock before an almost understanding and relieved smile graced the blond’s face momentarily.

_Good then. It seems Highwind understands no one here will judge him based on race now, though that temper could use something to take the edge out of it so he can learn to cope with others who do not view him correctly. Perhaps I should let him and Genesis meet after all._

**Author's Note:**

> (1): "You wanna talk to me about policy? Them damned high-to-do bastards think it’s my job to clean up after SOLDIER and TURK foul ups! If you don’t want me late then don’t screw up equipment or vehicles! Just cause you out rank me don’t mean I gotta respect you for givin’ me more work than trying to survive this place long enough to $%#@*^~ have the actual clearance to be workin’ properly!"
> 
> Hope chapter one was at least interesting. So, now is the time to earn some points! There will be two shout outs in the beginning notes of the next chapter. You can each only be mentioned once.
> 
> Chance 1: Guess the identity of the girl who moved away when Cid was a child.  
> Chance 2: Guess correctly why there are exactly 25 students and why Cid is the 25th.
> 
> Other than that just please tell me what you made of the story as I endeavor to finish chapter 2!
> 
> Stay safe!


End file.
